Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to route generation in a computer assisted navigation system and more particularly to route selection for a selected destination in a computer assisted navigation system.
Description of the Related Art
Computer assisted navigation has evolved substantially over the past half-century from a technology accessible only by governments and large institutions, to a technology accessible by ordinary people at a price comparable to a personal camera. Consequently, at present computer assisted navigation can be found embedded in private vehicles, and also as a stand-alone device coupled to a global positioning system (GPS) receiver. In complement to dedicated computer assisted navigation systems, and in many cases, as included as part of dedicated computer assisted navigation systems, software mapping systems have become a staple of personal computing and provide a degree of convenience in traveling for ordinary people not typical of just a few years ago.
Software mapping systems often are accessed from over the global Internet through a Web browser. Software mapping systems provide two essential functions. First, software mapping systems generate a map for a location—typically provided in the form of an address. Second, software mapping systems generate a route and corresponding textual directions to one destination from one origination. In many cases, a link embedded in content accessible over the World Wide Web can invoke a remote software mapping system to generate a route to a pre-specified destination associated with the content from a dynamically specified origin. In this way, end users interacting with the content associated with a destination can receive directions to the destination through the content from a dynamically specified origin.
Modern software mapping systems, whether included as part of a computer assisted navigation device, deployed as a stand-alone computer program, or rendered accessible over a network such as the Internet, permit the generation of multiple different routes to a specified destination from a specified location. The different generated routes can vary according to user preference such as the minimization of highways, the shortest route by distance or time, or the desire to avoid toll roads. As software mapping systems are only as reliable as the underlying mapping data, in many cases one route can be accurate while another may not be accurate. Many users will attest the frustration of not knowing which of several generated routes to select when plotting a course for a destination.
To facilitate route selection, many commercially available software mapping systems permitting the setting of waypoints. A waypoint is a location in a route viewed as an intermediate destination that must be reached en route to a final destination. By setting forth multiple different waypoints, an end user can plot a personalized route to a final destination. Even still, the use of waypoints in customizing a generated route presupposes the knowledge of the waypoints by the end user in plotting a course to a final destination. In many cases, however, end users are unfamiliar with the route to a desired destination and, as such, cannot specify waypoints.